Medical Spanish

Reported March 2007

DALLAS (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Hispanics make up 14 percent of the U.S. population. As that number grows, so will the need for Spanish-speaking health care workers. Now a program is breaking down language barriers and paving the way for better care.

"Muéstrame dónde lo duele."

Emily Pratt checks on Anahi and her newborn daughter. The physician assistant student puts to use the Spanish she learned in a one-of-a-kind program at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

"When they see that I do speak Spanish, you see a definite relief and opening up of their comfort level," Pratt tells Ivanhoe. She believes that two-way communication is the key to better care. "If they are comfortable in the environment, they are going to get well quicker.

That's one of the goals of the Medical Spanish classes for PAs developed by UT Southwestern linguist Cristina González. She says, "I try to teach my students to think more in Spanish than to think in English, because it's not a translation of one language to the other ... You are really conveying meaning, not words per se."

In the three-semester program, González stresses what she called respectful communication -- knowing the right words to say to the right person. For example, she says, "They'll also talk about the word 'barriga.' And those are words that you'll hear your patients say, but that you probably should use 'estómago' because it's the more professional word to use." González is now working on a textbook to share her specialized curriculum with other physician assistant programs.

Patients aren't the only ones who benefit. "The providers get a lot out of it because they're able to tend to you know, twice as many people now. They're not just limited in one language as to the people that they can help," González says.

...And helping those patients could translate into good medical care for generations to come.

The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org

Cristina M. González, M.A.
Department of Physician Assistant Studies
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX
(214) 648-1023
cristina.gonzalez@utsouthwestern.edu

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